Christmas Done Different: Getting Rid of the Big Man

Hello again friends. I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving! Now that we are nearing the end of November, it’s time to jump into Christmas mode. In years past I have waited until after Thanksgiving to even give a thought to Christmas gifts and plans. This year, however, I started early and was lucky to catch some great deals over the last month. As of now, I am officially done Christmas shopping for my kids and have only a few gifts left to buy. I’m thoroughly excited for this Christmas season and even more excited that both my babies are home with us for all the Christmas fun! I decided to share a little bit about what our month looks like in December as a homeschool family as well as how we do Christmas around here. It’s always fascinating to me to hear other families’ traditions for the holidays.

Christmas School

During the month of December, we will still be doing homeschool but have decided to switch things up to allow for more of those joyful Christmas memories. As a family, we began an Advent Bible Study. Each day leading up to Christmas we each participate in a study individually and then come together as a family to discuss what we’ve learned. We are using this a basis for our homeschool this month as it encompasses reading, writing, reading comprehension and family bonding as well as teaching us about our Savior. So far, it’s been really great and I’m looking forward to the rest of the month.

In addition to our daily Bible Study is our daily journal. In a previous post I talked about how we had a different topic for each day of the week when journaling. This month things are a little different. The kid’s favorite day of the week was “Would You Rather” days, so I found a whole list of Christmas themed would you rather questions and we are rolling through those every day this month. We are also doing math every day but have moved away from our workbooks for the most part. Instead, we are mostly utilizing free Christmas math resources from teacherspayteachers.com. Switching up our homeschool for the month provides some much-needed fun and is a great way to review what we’ve learned so far this year while sticking with our Christmas theme. Once the new year comes around, we will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the second half of our year.

Less is More

When my husband and I got married, we discussed what we wanted Christmases to look like with kids in the picture. Together we decided to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. For us this means lots of time spent together as a family making memories, reading scripture, and finding ways to show God’s love through giving. Over the years we have seen the importance of being intentional during the holidays. It’s so easy to get carried away by agreeing to all the activities and parties, buying gifts just for the sake of a good deal, or getting lost comparing yourself to others. It’s also so easy to get into spending mode and before you know it, you’ve gone way over your budget. Slowing down and savoring the moments is where I want to be in the holiday season. Every family celebrates in a way that suits them best, and for us, less is more at Christmas time.

Buying with Intention

In line with our less is more philosophy is how we handle gifting. When my son was two years old, I first heard this little rhyme about gifting for kids, you’ve probably heard it before. It goes “something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read.” I instantly fell in love. It made things so simple and kept the impulse to go overboard in check. My kids know that we use this outline so they know they will receive something from each category. For us, we typically choose to use this as a base and then add on a couple extra things. The last few years I have added a “something to learn” category and we will usually also buy one extra gift that is something we know they will like, but they didn’t specifically ask for.

This structure has worked really well for us to help limit spending, limit the “stuff” in the house, and keep our kids from losing the reason for the season. I’ve found the best way to utilize this style of gifting is to be very intentional with each and every purchase. There’s no reason the something to wear can’t also be the princess dress they’ve been asking for, or that something to read can’t be the next box set in the series they’ve been reading. Since we are limiting the number of gifts, I want each one to be something truly special to them.

The Big Man

We have chosen not to participate in the tradition of Santa in our home. While my kids enjoy Santa as a fun Christmas character, he’s not bringing any gifts on Christmas Eve. I totally understand that to some of you that may be absolutely insane, or maybe you think we are ruining the holiday magic, or depriving them of their childhood (believe me, we’ve heard it all), but I can assure you that my kids don’t feel some kind of way about it. They’ve never been disappointed, or asked why they didn’t have a gift from Santa. They know they are still getting Christmas gifts from mom and dad, and they are able to watch and enjoy all the fantastic Christmas movies featuring the big man himself. They get excited to see all the whimsical holiday decorations in the neighborhood and all over our downtown. We do everything we can to make this time of year special for them while keeping our focus on the true reason we are celebrating. For our family, the focus of Christmas is on the birth of Jesus and giving to others as a way to show God’s love. Christmas has become such a consumer holiday over the years. It has fostered an attitude of “what’s in it for me?” when it comes to gifts as well as a more, more, more, mentality. Removing Santa as a Christmas focus helps us to keep these mentalities in check, and keep our hearts turned towards Him. For our family, this was one of the best decisions we could have made when it comes to how we celebrate.

** If you are a family who participates in the Santa tradition, please don’t think I’m saying you are doing something wrong. As I said at the beginning of this post, each family celebrates the holidays in the way that is best for them. I’m not here to judge anyone, just to share how we celebrate Christmas in our own house.

Un-Pinterest Worthy

My house has never looked Pinterest worthy at the holidays, and you know what, I’m totally ok with that. I have zero interest in busting out a dusty tote of decorations and covering every square inch of my house with Christmas cheer. Do I appreciate it when I go in someone else’s home who chooses to do so? Absolutely. But over here in our house, our decorations are quite different. One Friday night in December we have a Christmas crafts night. We get out construction paper, glitter glue, markers, tape, the whole nine yards, and spend the evening creating whatever decorations we desire. I’m sure you can imagine the decor selection when designed by five-year-olds. But you know what? I love it. It’s something we do together as a family, and my children feel a sense of pride in having their hard work displayed for an entire month. Seeing the scribbled-on angels and the lop-sided snow men brings a smile to my face as I think about the giggles and squeals of joy from that night of creating. And that, that makes my heart happy.

Traditions

Having Christmas traditions is one of those things that make the holidays special. It’s taken us a few years, but we have a few traditions in place that we follow year after year. Last year we started an advent activity calendar filled with a different Christmas book, activity, game, or event each day. Some of the days are something really simple like a Christmas themed coloring page, and other days they are big events like going to a light show or making gingerbread houses. The kids really loved it, so I’m doing it again this year. They have enjoyed the few days we have done so far, and each morning can’t wait to see what our daily adventure will be. With them both being homeschooled, it’s really easy to disguise some schoolwork as fun Christmas activities that they look forward to. Learning and fun? Sounds like a win-win to me!

One of our longest standing traditions is shopping for the Angel Tree. If you’ve never heard of an Angel Tree, it’s a Christmas tree set up by the Salvation Army that has the gift wishes of children in need in our area. Each year my kids go and pick an Angel off the tree, usually someone around the same age as them and then we go shopping for their Angel. This shopping trip is solely focused on our intended recipients. We encourage the kids to really put themselves in the other child’s shoes and shop intentionally. Every year I am blown away by how serious my kids take it, and how thoughtful they are. The other thing that always surprises me is that while on this shopping trip, neither one of them asks for a single thing for themselves.

Our other traditions are mainly just for fun. Things like making sugar cookies, getting matching PJs (see our progression of PJs through the years below!), watching Elf while wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve (my husband always rolls his eyes at me but, hey, it’s tradition!), and driving around with hot cocoa and Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve to look at Christmas lights! There are so many traditions during the holidays, what are some of your families’ favorites?